Mission Details
| Mission Name: Ranger 8 |
| Mission Type: Lunar Impact |
| Operator: NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) |
| Launching State: United States |
| Location: Sea of Tranquillity |
| Latitude: 2.638 |
| Longitude: 24.787 |
| Launch Date: 17 February 1965, 17:05:00 UT |
| Landing Date: 20 February 1965, 09:57:36 UT |
| Objects on or Related to Site: Ranger 8 |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
The Ranger project of the 1960s was a US effort to launch probes directly toward the Moon. The spacecraft were designed to relay pictures and other data as they approached the Moon and finally crash-landed into its surface. A variety of difficulties plagued the first several attempted missions in this series, but the later Rangers were finally a complete success.
The mission of Ranger 8 was to take high-resolution photographs of the Moon before impacting the lunar surface.
Read more:
https://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/past/ranger.html
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/ranger-8/in-depth/
Heritage Consideration
Ranger 8 impacted the Moon about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from its target in the Sea of Tranquility, the area where Apollo 11 landed July 20, 1969, bringing the first humans to the Moon.
Object on or Related to Site
| Object Name: Ranger 8 | |
| Cospar: 1965-010A | |
| Norad: N/A | |
| Location: Precise location unknown or undisclosed. | |
| Launch Date: 17 February 1965, 17:05:00 UT | |
| Landing Date: 20 February 1965, 09:57:36 UT | |
| Deployment: N/A | |
| End Date: N/A | |
| Function: Lunar imagery. | |
| Image Source: NASA |
Description
Ranger 8 was a lunar probe in the Ranger program, a robotic spacecraft series launched by NASA in the early-to-mid-1960s to obtain the first close-up images of the Moon’s surface. These pictures helped select landing sites for Apollo missions and were used for scientific study. During its 1965 mission, Ranger 8 transmitted 7,137 lunar surface photographs before it crashed into the Moon as planned.
